Large scale lighting systems for businesses, industrial operations, educational institutions, hospitals and similar have traditionally used fluorescent light fixtures with replaceable fluorescent light tubes. These fluorescent tubes are increasingly being replaced with LED (light emitting diode) light tubes having arrays of board-mounted LEDs with power supply or “driver” circuits for controlling LED operating parameters. In some cases it is desirable to have driver circuitry in a driver board separate from the LED board. Prior driver boards are commonly soldered or connected by wire-and-plug terminals between the end cap and the LED board, in order to simplify replacement and to make it easier to modify or add to the functionality of the basic LED lighting in the tube by swapping out one type of driver board for another.
In some prior LED tubes the driver board is built into or connected directly to the end cap, for example by being integrated with an LED array in the end cap itself (U.S. Pat. No. 7,946,729), or with slot-to-board or header connections between a driver-containing board and the end cap (Chinese patent grant CN 204460096 U; Published App. No. US2013/0230995 A1 to Ivey et al).
It is also known to provide circuit boards in light tubes with wireless communication chips such as Bluetooth low energy (BLE) sensor modules, in order to enable building-wide wireless communication and/or sensor networks useful for signal tracking. An example of such an LED board is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,214,084 to Ivey et al. Another example is shown in Published App. No. US2014/0375204 A1, with a communication circuit board in the end cap connected directly to a driver board.
Prior LED light tube driver and end cap arrangements are believed to be lacking in simplicity, strength, ease of replacement, and flexibility with respect to replacing malfunctioning driver boards or retrofitting existing LED light tubes for different communication and networking capabilities.